~ (1888 – 1944)

Biography

Studied in Odessa (1903), then at the Imperial Academy of Beaux Arts in St. Petersburg.

1907-1910

Exhibited at the first historic exhibitions by the Russian avant-garde in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev, regrouping artists, musicians and sculptors as a synthesis of all the arts. Baranoff continued to work within this ideal. His polychrome sculpture SYMPHONY Number 1 is now exhibited at the MoMA – Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

1910-1914

Worked in Paris under the name Daniel Rossiné. Continued to sculpt and exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants. Assumes the conquest of cubism then of futuristic dynamism. Has numerous artistic contacts and is particularly friendly with Robert and Sonia DELAUNAY with whom he keeps in touch until his disappearance. He affirms his originality with his Symphony No. 2, a polychrome sculpture made of ‘ paradoxal assemblies ‘ that is widely criticised but brings him to the attention of Guillaume APOLLINAIRE. Part of the School of Paris. Set up his studio in LA RUCHE, where he met ARCHIPENKO, CHAGALL, DOBRINSKY, SOUTINE, and ZADKINE. He also attended the Paris soirées given by the Baronne d’OETTINGEN and Serge FERAT where they welcomed the Russian and French avant garde including EXTER, GONTCHAROVA, LARIONOV, SURVAGE, Max JACOB and the art critic André SALMON.

1915-1917

Travelled to Scandinavia. Voyage en Norvege. One-man exhibition in Kristiana (Oslo, Norway) in 1916, and also in Stockholm, where he used his optophonic piano. He invented a new plastic principle to apprehend reality, based on the use of the Moebius ribbon.

1917-1922

Takes the double-barrelled name of Baranoff-Rossiné. Returned to Russia after the February 1917 Revolution where he was part of the Artistic Revolution. He married his first wife in 1919 but she died in childbirth in 1920 in Moscow to his first son, Eugene (1920-1997). In 1918 Baranoff-Rossine set up an Art Workshop in a room in the former St. Petersburg Academy.

1923-1924

Married Pauline Cemionovna Boukour (1900 – 1979). Pursuing his chromatic research, he achieves his dream of combining sound, colour and shape in building the famous Optophonic piano : striking the keys triggers the movements of coloured records. Dispersed after the war, it was rebuilt by his son Dimitri and is currently kept at the National Modern Art Museum in Paris. In 1924, he gave two piano optophonic concerts, with his wife Pauline, at the Meyerhold theatre and Bolchoi (Moscow).

1925-1939

1925-1939: Left Russia with his wife Pauline and his son Eugene to come to France. Founded the first optophonic academy in 1927 and pursued his audiovisual research work. Birth in Paris of his 2nd son, Michel in 1928, who died accidentally in 1935, and of his daughter Tatiana in 1934. His son Eugene left his family in 1936 at the age of 16, to return after his father’s death. His POLYTECHNIC SCULPTURE SCULPTURE POLYTECHNIQUE provoked the sarcasm of the press but this sculpture is currently exhibited at the National Modern Art Museum in Paris.

1939-1941

Continuously experimenting, Baranoff-Rossiné applied the art of colour to military art with the technique of camouflage or the Cameleon process and this was marketed with Robert DELAUNAY. Baranoff-Rossine also invented a “PHOTOCHROMOMETER” that allowed the determination of the qualities of precious stones. In another field, he perfected a machine that made, sterlized and distributed fizzy drinks, the “MULTIPERCO”, and this received several technical awards at the time.